San Francisco Chronicle Wine Editor Linda Murphy lists Top 100 Wines 2005. She begins:
It was love at first sight nearly 30 years ago when Gray Franscioni, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate and scion of a Monterey County farming family, met and later married Rosella Munoz, a hair stylist whose family had relocated to Gonzales (Monterey County) from the Mexican state of Durango.
While running the Franscioni ranch, the couple in 1996 planted Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah vines on their Santa Lucia Highlands property west of Gonzales. They called it Rosella’s Vineyard, and now, 10 years later, Rosella, the daughter of migrant workers, is an icon in California winemaking.
On The Chronicle’s Top 100 Wines of 2005 list, Rosella has her name on an amazing eight wines — seven Pinot Noirs and a Syrah….
Twenty-two Pinot Noirs make the top 100. Murphy notes:
It’s a fact that the very best wines on Earth are expensive, though not all expensive wines are great. Quality commands top dollar, and demand regulates what top dollar is. The post-“Sideways” consumer rush to buy Pinot Noir, low yields, the gentle handling the Pinot Noir grape requires and the custom farming done by the Franscionis and others make buying stellar Pinot Noir mostly a costly proposition.